I have the incredible honor and pleasure to sit on the Board of Directors for Independent Arts and Media. And...I'm not just on the board, 14 Black Poppies is fiscally sponsored by IAM. I joined the board and brought 14 Black Poppies to IAM because I want to see more horizontal leadership models supporting independent arts, producers, and media makers.

This month, I have the pleasure of featuring Christina Maile and Colors of Connection in my column, I AM [insert org name here]. I met Christina through a simple email exchange. Being on the Board of I AM gives me the unique position of being able to reach out and get to know people and their work.

I can't remember all of the details. I do remember Christina being incredibly gracious and open, sharing stories of how art transforms lives and communities. I then went on to her project's website, and what impressed me most is that her image isn't front and center. Rather, it is the image of all the wonderful people creating art. That spoke to me.

Too often artists' egos get wrapped up in their work, and in many case rightfully so. This, though, doesn't always sit well with me when working with communities historically marginalized. Rather, as an artists and community builders and healers, we should be creating the platforms in solidarity with communities that let all shine. That is crucial to doing the work. In fact, a recent post by Black Girl Dangerous, "No More 'Allies'" puts it even better than I can.

Still, the artist also deserves a platform to tell their story. So, today, I introduce you to Christina Maile of Colors of Connection. Read up on her perspective of why she does this work. It's incredibly moving. And check out a video about their work.

by Christina Maile

I started out as an artist, with a desire to be part of something humanitarian yet believing that it would be close to impossible to have both fully integrated into my life. I went to Hunter College in New York where I completed my BFA and throughout my arts education I had mixed feelings about where to devote my time. Sometimes I was regarded as an anomaly – a playful joke I once heard was “Christina are you going to paint in the studio tonight? No? Oh sorry I forget you want to save the children first, my mistake.”

Several years after I graduated I got a phone call from a close friend, Laurie Reyman who invited me to do a mural project in an isolated postwar town in Liberia. Laurie had an international development position with the Carter Center in Harper, which was a small impoverished community struggling to rebuild itself after 14 years of civil war. The physical landscape was disturbing: though the war had ended in 2003, evidence of the destruction the war had caused was still visible in the many unrenovated cement shells of buildings that had been burned and looted and which were now overgrown with vines and moss, or partially rehabilitated and inhabited by squatters. Laurie envisioned a community arts project that as an artist I would be able to implement with her knowledge of the community’s needs and the relationships she had built already in Harper. I was through the roof excited about this opportunity to offer my skills as an artist in an area where visual transformation was so needed. This project gave me a chance to try something that I had been afraid to think was possible: creating a job for myself to do art in the humanitarian field. After successful fundraising I was on the ground 8 months later. In four months the project had a transformative effect on the post war landscape. We mobilized 56 youth from 8 different schools and created, under the guidance of a community arts council, 4 murals on structures in Harper that expressed the vision of the future for this community. Since that time the project has grown into an organization founded by myself and Laurie Reyman called Colors of Connection. We’ve completed 3 projects so far in post war Liberia and are gearing up for our next one with Malian refugees in Burkina Faso. Our work engages communities and youth in creative expression in areas where art is typically void, including post war communities and refugee camps.

Laurie and I became dedicated to this work following our first experience in Harper, Liberia. We came to realize that places as isolated and underdeveloped as Harper need creative energy almost as much as anything else and that art does have a real power. If you look at priorities in humanitarian assistance you’ll likely see art at the bottom of the list. However in a situation like Liberia in which the country was heavily dependent on international aid and also lacking in artistic creativity, many people felt helpless, dependent, and stagnant. I had never been to a place as devoid of the arts or as dependent on outside help as Liberia. Liberia has not had the arts taught in the schools for a generation. Kids and adults don’t know that red + yellow makes orange. In Harper even craftsmanship is barely present, so it’s hard to find a person who knows how to make a good chair. The project enabled the youth creating the murals and the community witnessing it to step out of their difficult daily lives and imagine a better future. In a place almost devoid of the arts, art brought a special therapeutic energy that was helping people move forward, believe in more than their immediate reality, and connect with each other through their common hopes and dreams. The community couldn’t believe that the potential existed in their children and in their town to create something so beautiful. Laurie and I believe that art belongs to everyone everywhere and we hope to continue sharing it with the people and places around the world that need it the most.

I have the incredible honor and pleasure to sit on the Board of Directors for Independent Arts and Media. And...I'm not just on the board, 14 Black Poppies is fiscally sponsored by IAM. I joined the board and brought 14 Black Poppies to IAM because I want to see more horizontal leadership models supporting independent arts, producers, and media makers.

In my role of being both a Board Member and fiscally sponsored project, it is my hope to create a strong network of people helping people realize their visions for a better world and society. To do this, I put out a call to all of the IAM projects asking them if they wanted to join me in launching fundraising campaigns on IndieGogo because you know funding is crucial to ALL of our success.

I am calling it Cooperative Campaigning, and its main goal is simple: cross-polination between projects, audiences, and funding. You see, I don't believe in the old model of competition. It's so 20th century. It is the root of that greedy thing called capitalism. And it is ruining our social good because even non-profits who are supposed to be all about their mission become radically competitive when money gets involved.

There were about six of us that came together to start working on campaigns with a hopeful launch date of September 12, 2013. Well...none of us made that exact launch date cause, you know, life happens (especially when you're broke and need to still pay bills by working that cafe job). But what did happen is a network started forming. I know now more intimately the goals and dreams of independent artists, media makers, and producers. And we are all supporting each others work in incredibly profound ways: referring funders, making connections to international education organizations, getting programming into schools, providing crucial feedback at critical times, and even more.

Two of us did launch campaigns. 14 Black Poppies and Project Luz. You can find out all about my campaign here. It's called CAT'S Got Talent. But enough about 14 Black Poppies and IAM. It's time for you to learn about the amazing work of Project Luz, which is spearheaded by my friend (so glad I can call her that now) Jasmin Lopez.

I started Project Luz in 2007 with the idea of running an arts education program in my family’s hometown - Ejido Hermosillo, Mexico. The inspiration for the program was my cousin, Rafa, who my siblings and I looked up to as a child. As my sister best puts it, he was the leader of our pack. He taught us how to appreciate the dirt roads and simple pleasures of our family’s town. Rafa wasn’t afforded the basic resources or opportunities that we were fortunate to have and struggled much of his life - an all too common occurrence. It often broke my heart to hear news from my family, and made me wonder what challenges the next generation were facing. So, I did what I could and figured out a way to answer that question or at the very least provide a creative outlet for youth, to the best of my own abilities. The first project offered photography, painting, musical workshops to 117 students, and took place in April 2007 thanks to contributions from our supporters and the hard work of ten Los Angeles and San Francisco-based artists and educators.The amount of support I received was overwhelming to say the least. The initial lessons, even more so. As Project Luz evolved, so did my direction and vision. I realized that the youth were drawn to photography, and that it was an accessible and effective tool for storytelling. Later that year, I sought out two outstanding photojournalists that accepted my request to collaborate. Not only did they accept without a doubt, they were in Ejido Hermosillo within a month, and working with youth that summer. I watched them, and six others, channel their passion for photojournalism into their work with these youth. It was inspiring to watch them grow, and a gift to learn from them. Over the next few years, collaborations with many individuals and organizations continued, and Project Luz flourished. In 2008, we began our work in Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico. We were introduced to Talleres Comunitarios, a community center in Neza, and the 20 youth we work with to this day.Why do I do this work? This is the question that I am often asked and continuously return to. To answer this, I take a look at the history of the project, the individuals and communities I have worked with, and the personal and professional lessons they have taught me. I can’t discount the generosity, support, and hard work of the mentors, students, and Raul Solis of Talleres Comunitarios. They are what make Project Luz such an inspiring project, and what keeps me moving forward.When allowed, collaboration leads to lessons leads to growth leads to community.

That's right! I am proud to announce that 14 Black Poppies is now fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts and Media!

What does that mean?

Well, when Margaret and I started down this path we initially conceived of 14 Black Poppies as a small business partnership. We didn't want to buy into the non-profit industrial complex because both of us were so burnt out on non-profit work. We wanted to do something different, to find new ways to bring community, arts, and wellness to communities of all shapes, sizes, perspectives, beliefs, and ages.

And we are doing just that. With our Spring Season of cultural programs, Artist and Healer Network, partnerships with small, local artists and arts organizations, internship program, and a year of ritual (more on that coming soon!), we are even increasing our FREE offerings to the San Francisco Bay Area community. It is incredibly exciting.

As we expand, hone, refine, and produce our offerings, we realize that providing FREE events and workshops to the community MAKES us a non-profit. We do not make any money doing this, and we leverage a whole network and community of artists, healers, producers, curators, scientists, filmmakers, musicians, and performers who also contribute (for FREE) their talents and skills. In order to sustain this kind of work, we needed to find a partner that shares our values, has infrastructure, and believes in the power of partnership and collaboration to bring people, ideas, and communities together.

After much searching, talking with others, and reflecting on past fiscal sponsorships (I have worked with many over the course of my career here in San Francisco), I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Josh Wilson at Independent Arts & Media. During our conversation, I knew immediately that IAM was a match for 14 Black Poppies as they have been doing arts, media, culture, and democracy work for over a decade. Additionally, right now all they do is fiscal sponsorship for small, nimble arts, culture, media, and democracy projects.

We spoke at length about the nature of fiscal sponsorship, of how infrastructure is needed to support the individuals doing ground-breaking, grassroots work that is impacting communities in deep, complex ways, ways that are often not funded by traditional means. What impressed me is IAM's focus on lean and mean fiscal accountability that provides a stable platform from which others can create solutions and experiments with, for, and in our communities. I was also struck by the desire to have fiscally sponsored projects represented on IAM's Board of Directors as a means of accountability, leadership, value alignment, and vision. In fact, I didn't just apply for 14 Black Poppies to be fiscally sponsored by IAM I also applied to be a board member representing fiscally sponsored projects.

On Tuesday evening, 14 Black Poppies was approved for fiscal sponsorship, and I was voted onto the Board of Directors. It also marked my first meeting, one of which I left feeling rejuvenated and connected to other folks dedicated to creating thriving communities.

I look forward to this new partnership, one that will help solidify 14 Black Poppies as an innovative organization that experiments with new models, strengthens deep connections between people and organizations, and cultivates community, arts, and wellness. I know it means more work. Luckily, I love work.

About the Blog

The 14 Black Poppies Blog is the place to find creative works, personal reflections, articles and various arts and wellness sundries that either inspire or are created by co-founders Jason Wyman and Margaret Bacon Schulze.